Life's Precious Circle
by Racke
Summary: A short story about their life, Asuna x Negi, AU


Life's Precious Circle

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

XXX

Asuna smiled at the memory captured within the plain frame.

She was wearing a silly hat and smiling at the camera, happily revealing a missing tooth. Her dad was chuckling helplessly in the background as her mom took away his cigarettes again. Nagi was also there, laughing at his old friend, leaving Arika to roll her eyes at their regular antics.

It was Negi's birthday, and the birthday child was currently doing his very best to blow out the seven candles on the cake.

He'd failed.

She remembered laughing at him. She also remembered trying to prove herself better at it and almost fainting in the process.

They'd fought over everything, absolutely everything. But even in their worst fights, they'd never gotten past yelling and slamming doors.

Their dads would make jokes about them acting like a married couple, bickering over every little thing, and their mothers would respond by starting to discuss the comforts of their respective couches. Their dads would shut up at that. Neither Asuna nor Negi had ever understood why, but they'd been convinced not to question it.

They had more memories together than they did separated, because they just never really left each other's side.

They'd gotten teased for it from their friends, but it didn't really matter. Sure, they fought, but they always made up before the day came to an end.

Negi had always been popular with girls, much to his father's amusement, but even when he'd finally came back after having gotten his growth spurt during the time he'd been visiting his cousin in Wales, he seemed more interested in rubbing the fact that he now actually taller than Asuna in her face than paying attention to the girls who were swooning around him – which made his father worry about closets for some reason.

Of course, she'd responded to this by stepping on his toes, but they'd made up within the hour.

She wasn't really sure when it'd happened, but she _did_ definitely remember that time she'd been dolled up by her friends and he'd forgotten to close his mouth. He'd also forgotten to blink. For five minutes.

Not that she'd been counting every single moment or anything.

He'd asked to go to the dance with her.

He'd been halfway through his excuses when she'd said yes.

Her mother was the one who dolled her up this time.

And, apparently, she'd done a good job of it, considering how her father had been forced to point out the time when a certain young man came to pick her up, a certain young man who'd apparently forgotten to breathe this time as well. According to her mom, anyways. She'd been too busy trying not to swoon to pay attention.

Arm in arm, they'd ended up dancing through the entire night.

She'd refused to wear shoes for an entire week afterwards, and she'd promised to burn the pair that had done such despicable things to her poor innocent feet.

She still had them.

And her refusal to wear them was due to her disgust for them, and not at all because they were too precious to her.

Her mom was just being silly.

Their classmates had declared that they'd known it all along, and somewhere halfway through their indignant protests, they'd agreed.

Their dads had laughed and Nagi had joked that they might as well get married right off the bat, Arika had mentioned the comforts of their couch, and Asuna had finally figured out what that meant.

They held hands in public, hugged amongst friends, and kissed in private. But, even so, not a lot changed.

They still fought about every little thing, they still made up before the end of the day, and they still spent more time together than they did separated.

Years passed, and then came the day when everything kept going wrong. And then Negi got down on one knee, and she finally figured out why he'd needed that job so badly.

She scolded him for using all that money on a rock, but he just smiled.

So, she said yes.

They got married in the spring.

Their mothers both started crying, and their fathers joked about getting Negi to sleep on the couch.

Nine months later, she gave birth to a daughter.

She was fairly certain that they must have spoiled her rotten with all their doting.

During her first day in school, she became friends with a Chinese boy.

They fought over everything.

So, Negi smiled and made a joke, and she rolled her eyes and mentioned the couch.

He shut up at that.

XXX

**A/n: ****Mary's Song, because I felt like it.**


End file.
